"I survived Mariupol, then had to survive captivity" – Artur Shkeul, 501st Separate Marine Battalion
Artur Shkeul, a marine from Berdiansk, signed his contract in 2016 and had already gained combat experience in Donbas before 2022. His brother Vladyslav served alongside him and nearly lost his life in 2019. Artur had to personally save his brother, holding a neck tamponade.
In April 2022, Artur and Vladyslav, along with their brothers-in-arms, were taken prisoner in the village of Myrne near Mariupol. They were separated there, Vladyslav was held in the Luhansk region, while Artur was sent to the Russian Federation: first to Taganrog, and later to the Tver region and Mordovia. They only reunited 40 months later on a plane, on the day of their release from captivity, August 14, 2025.
Artur Shkeul underwent rehabilitation at the Unbroken Center in Lviv. His conversation with "Butusov Plus" journalists was his first interview since being freed. How do the Russians torture service members? What was the most terrifying part of captivity, and what horrors continue to haunt him six months after his release?
My name is Artur Shkeul. I am the former Chief Sergeant of the 501st Separate Marine Battalion. I have been serving in the battalion since 2016. I signed a contract and continue to serve to this day
Currently, I am a former because I am not performing the duties of Chief Sergeant at this time.
You said you've been serving since 2016, but before that, you had your compulsory military service.
We were in combat near Pavlopil; that was back in 2016–2017. It was probably the 'hottest' period then. There was constant shelling, and the situation escalated significantly in the spring of 2017, when our guys went on reconnaissance, and three men were killed by a tripwire. I think that was probably the worst. And, of course, my brother was wounded in 2019 when a drone flew in and wounded three men with a munition drop. My brother was the most severely injured of them.
You mentioned having to hold a tamponade...
Yes, that moment was probably the most difficult, one of the most difficult in my life, when I held a tamponade on my brother's neck. It was likely one of the toughest trials of my life.
Were you able to save him?
Yes, of course, everything is fine. He survived; he lost some blood, but, thank God, he stayed alive, recovered, and continued to serve with me.
Where exactly were you on February 24, 2022, and how did the day start for you?
On 24 February, I was at the command-and-observation post of the 501st Battalion. I was the Assistant Duty Officer of the Battalion Command-and-Observation Post at the time.
I was specifically in the sector in the village of Shyrokyne near Mariupol. I saw firsthand when the Russian Federation began the war against Ukraine.
We were taken prisoner in Myrne on April 4.
Tell us what you can about how you were captured
On the evening before we were taken prisoner, the air assault company commander gave us an order. He said there would be a command in the morning, and we were to take only our individual weapons—no crew-served weapons. It was very suspicious, but we understood that some kind of decision had likely been made. Everyone was convinced we were probably going to attempt a breakout.
In the morning, I received the command, gathered the two positions under my leadership, and we moved out. We thought we were going to assist the 2nd Company and, most likely, join the breakout. That’s what we all believed, but when we arrived at the 2nd Company’s positions, we saw a massive pile of weapons.
The company commander told us to surrender our weapons, body armor, and first aid kits. He said, Boys, we are going into captivity. We are being taken prisoner. There was really no choice at that point, so we surrendered our weapons and followed the order.
Many were unhappy about it. A lot of guys wanted to stay and fight, but what happened, happened.
I had no contact with my brother at all. The last time I heard him was over the radio. He wished me a happy birthday.
My birthday was on March 31, and I was captured on April 4. I heard him on the radio, but then they came under very heavy artillery fire, and he suffered a concussion. His position was destroyed.
There were many casualties, both KIA and WIA. My brother suffered a very severe concussion and was sent to the Ilyich plant.
Was he captured at the Ilyich plant?
Yes, he was captured at the Ilyich plant on April 12.
And where was he held afterward?
He was in the Donetsk region the whole time. He didn't go to Taganrog with me; he stayed in Donetsk.
After that, I had no information about him. Later, while in captivity, when I arrived in Kashin in the Tver region, there were guys there who had been with him in Olenivka. They told me he was alive and well, and that he was doing relatively fine.
He had also been taken prisoner, but as part of the brigade.
Was he held somewhere in the Luhansk region later?
Yes. Later, when I was giving statements to Russian investigators, I asked about him. They told me right away that he was in the Luhansk region, but to be honest, I didn't believe them. Until the very end of my captivity, I didn't believe he was in the Luhansk region.
I thought he was somewhere in Russia. But later, when I talked to my brother, it turned out that the investigator had been telling the truth, and he had stayed there until the end.
I had just been taken prisoner, and as they say, my mind was on something else, I was thinking about how to survive.
If I had already survived Mariupol, then I had to survive captivity too. Since I had the strength and the luck to survive the conditions I was in, that other stuff wasn't really on my mind, to be honest.
You say surviving Mariupol was a matter of luck. Can you explain that a bit?
I was on the outskirts of Myrne. The luck was in the fact that we were being hit by absolutely everything—missiles, aircraft. The aircraft were probably the scariest because there was no way to fight back against them. There was no air defense in Mariupol, so the planes... You didn’t understand where it was coming from or how; a building would just vanish. They were simply erased, you’d lie down to rest at night or come back after a shift, lie down, wake up in the morning, and the street is just gone. It was simply wiped out.
It was luck. I can’t put it any other way. We hid in houses, so one day you’d walk down a street, and the next you’d be walking through a wasteland. They erased everything they touched. Nine-story buildings just collapsed. Massive shelling every single day. I lost many of my brothers-in-arms during those six weeks I fought in Mariupol.
I know the general outline of your journey through captivity—Olenivka, then Russian territory, Taganrog, Mordovia. Can you tell us where you were taken first?
First, they took us to Sartana, which we called "The Stables."
They brought us there, and we stayed there for about two days.
Why "The Stables"?
It was an enclosure, entirely concrete, looking very much like a stable. I don’t know how else to explain it. That’s just what we prisoners called it among ourselves. Then came Olenivka. I was there for about 10 or 12 days—to be honest, I don’t remember the exact number. After that, I was sent to Taganrog. The intake in Taganrog was very brutal.
The most stressful part was probably not when you were being beaten, but when someone else was. When someone is screaming. It is impossible to put into words. I don’t know how to explain the stress that I and others were under. It was truly horrific. The interrogations, the constant beatings while you were being moved to an interrogation and then when you were taken back.
I was on the fourth floor, I think. As I walked, they would batter my legs; they loved hitting the kidneys and the head. I don’t know how to describe it—being kicked like a soccer ball. They hit everywhere; it didn't matter; no one controlled their strength or anything.
Broken ribs were normal. During the first week, and I was only there for a week, I couldn't sleep on my sides at all; I had to sleep on my back. My ribs were... they must have been broken. I’ve never had broken ribs before, so I didn't know for sure, but I felt terrible. For about a month or a month and a half, I had trouble sleeping and even breathing; every sharp breath just made everything hurt.
Then came the Tver region, God, give me strength to remember, Kashin, where I stayed for 10 months. The conditions in Kashin were more or less tolerable, although they still beat you during interrogations because they were trying to force a confession that you had killed civilians.
Generally, every single charge they bring is centered on the same two things: the murder of civilians and the destruction of infrastructure. They mainly prosecuted mortar crews and engineers for blowing up buildings and things like that. Although they beat us there, once the interrogations and that whole process were over, the conditions became somewhat more humane.
We slept, they gave us some books to read, though the food, of course, was horrific, just the absolute minimum so you could keep your eyes open and go for a walk. Things were more or less okay in that regard. But I thought that was the worst place I could end up, until I got to Mordovia.
Mordovia was the hardest ordeal of my entire life.
It all started when they unloaded us from the trucks, the prisoner vans. We stood in the freezing cold, it was February 10, 2023, for about an hour.
We had minimal clothing. We were frozen, but that wasn't even the worst of what followed. Then they opened the doors and led us in one by one, forcing us to our knees in a corridor completely lined with tile.
You had to strip completely naked, put your clothes in a bag, stick a label with your last name on it, and hand it to someone—you didn't know who because your eyes were closed.
They forced you to keep your eyes closed; if you opened them, peeked, or anything like that, they started beating you immediately. Then they threw me into a room and started cutting my hair, beating me with a baton throughout the process. They assigned some guard to me, so to speak, who accompanied me and beat me constantly.
After that, I fell somehow, and they wrote my name and surname on a plaque. Then I stood up naked, and they photographed me with that plaque, my name, surname, and year of birth. After that, we were taken to a bathroom where there were about thirty men, more or less, I don't remember exactly. Everyone was naked. The position, to give you an idea: hands up, and everyone had to press against each other as tightly as possible because another guard was walking around with a taser, and he shocked anyone who wasn't huddled close. They were herding and beating us like calves, using tasers to force us to cram together as much as possible.
Then one of the special guards grabbed me, I call them specials because their uniforms were different from the regular prison staff we nicknamed bruises. One grabbed me by the neck and led me, while another hit me with a baton. Everything was cold and tiled. I was shoved into a room where I had to sign some papers and pick up some gear. I signed without even reading, having no idea what they had put in front of me. I signed, took the things, and they beat me with the baton again before chasing me outside into an alley between the barracks, about 50 meters long.
It was solid ice. I ran across it through a gauntlet of dogs, naked, clutching my things with my head down. I’ve never felt anything like the sensation I had then. When you run with frozen feet on ice, there is this dull pain I can't quite describe; it felt as if I had wooden sticks instead of legs. I ran into another building, a guard led me to a room, and I could hear the other guys screaming—screaming in agony, in voices that didn't even sound like theirs anymore.
I thought I had basically gotten used to the screaming because they beat everyone there; everyone screams, everyone is in pain. They led us into this room; I was thrown in and forced to my knees, naked, clutching all my things. About six men stood over me, with a seventh sitting at a table, each with their own instrument.
Two of them had tasers, two had rubber batons, and two others had these plastic paddles. Someone started questioning me. I didn't understand what he was asking at all, I was in total shock, and everything hurt.
I had just been beaten over there, and now here. They started beating me. I held on as long as my endurance allowed; I endured and endured, but finally, I just couldn't take it anymore.
I said, Guys, I don't know what you're asking me, what can I even tell you? I don't know what car you're talking about, or which executed people. I have no idea what you mean.
The pain shock was so bad that I just said, I just turned to them and said, guys, I swear, I don't know what you're asking me. I had the impression that because of the pain I was feeling, well, I think that if they had beaten me for another minute, because it seems to me that the pain shock was so intense that I felt like I had never felt anything like it before, that I was going to pass out. But somehow, miraculously, that didn't happen.
They forced me to run out of the room with my belongings. I ran to the cell and they ordered me, I was the first in the cell, they ordered me to get dressed. When I started to get dressed, I realised that blood was flowing from my butt.
And, you know, I promised myself in captivity that I would never hit my child on the butt. Because it's just unreal, it hurts.
From beatings?
Yes.
Mordovia was extremely difficult; there were inspections every single day. Every day, your cell door would open, you and your comrades would run out, and they’d put you in a stress position. You’d lower your head, close your eyes, and they might quiz you on the Russian national anthem, how many letters it has, how many commas, or your duties, what is mandatory, and what is prohibited. If, God forbid, you made a mistake, they would beat you, at best, only you.
But often, if one person messed up, everyone messed up, and all the guys would be beaten. So there was this constant fear of making a mistake so that the others wouldn't suffer because of you.
We were in such isolation; I only knew about the three or four cells around me and the seven men I shared a cell with.
They isolated and tormented us so much that we knew absolutely nothing. For instance, it took two or three months for us to find out who won the World Cup, the Euros, or the Champions League. Once, we encountered a relatively decent guard whom we just asked, and he answered a couple of questions for us.
Generally, they were forbidden from telling us anything. They told us that Ukrainians no longer existed, that they were already fighting Europe because all the Ukrainians had died. They would say, You don’t exist anymore, such-and-such regions are ours now, we’ve already taken half of Ukraine all the way to the Dnipro.
This was the kind of misinformation they pushed—that a referendum had passed here, that those regions wanted to be with them there. We knew how those referendums were conducted; we had already seen how they did it in Crimea, so no one believed it. We understood it was all fake.
We kept going by holding onto the thought that Ukraine was standing, that we have a very tough president who didn't abandon his country when it was at its hardest. We were always warmed by that thought, and we believed in our country, that we would endure and that everything was okay there.
Were there any opportunities to communicate with your loved ones?
Look, over the entire time in captivity, spanning three years and four months, I wrote four letters. My wife wrote to me, and I received about thirteen letters, but if you count it up, I only actually received mail from her three times in those three years. The first letter I got from my wife came after two years of captivity, when I was already in Mordovia. They finally gave us letters from our families; in fact, it was nearly two and a half years before we received anything.
Before that, there was absolutely no communication with my wife or my family. None at all.
Regarding what you said, about the Russians telling you Ukraine had been conquered and trying to frame you for shelling civilians, how do you explain to yourself why they do this?
It is all very simple: to justify their aggression. The fact that they kill civilians every day, people who are completely uninvolved, just living their lives and doing no harm to anyone, at least, that is how they see it.
If you are going to fight, fight against the soldiers on the front lines. But they fight against civilians by shelling ordinary residential buildings. What is that? How can you justify it? When they talk about us in Mariupol... honestly, I don't understand some of them. Some even turned their faces away during interrogations. I would say, Men, do you see how many...
One lieutenant colonel, I’m not sure who he was exactly, military police or something, was talking to me. He was bragging about how many shells they had fired at Mariupol.
He gave me this statistic: Do you know how many artillery shells the Americans fired during Operation Desert Storm? I said, No, I don't. He said, 90,000 shells. Then he asked, Do you know how many hit Mariupol in a single day? These are our own statistics.
I asked, How many? He said, 100,000. I was in Mariupol for a month, specifically, a little over that. Imagine, over a million shells of all different calibers hit Mariupol in a month.
Then I asked him, And how many of those shells hit military targets? Can you look at the percentage of soldiers who died in Mariupol? It wasn't that many. But how many civilians were killed by those shells? Did you count them? And that specific lieutenant colonel just looked away, started flipping through some papers, and didn't give me an answer.
Tell us about the day you were released.
An absolutely ordinary day. To be honest, exactly as we discussed, that’s how it happened. I absolutely did not expect that I would be going home.
It was an ordinary day. We were taken out to... We were watching TV. There was a room there.
They took us from our cell to another cell where there was a TV. For two and a half years, we watched the exact same video of how they liberated Mariupol. Just the same program where they show a report on how they liberated Mariupol.
How Mariupol residents are grateful to them for liberating them from the Ukrainian government and everything else.
So they forced you to watch it every day?
Yes, yes. To give you an idea, we had a radio.
And they played practically the same playlist for us every single day. We didn't have a clock. We learned, we understood that we wake up at 6 AM.
And we calculated the time by the songs. We had one guy, Roma, in my cell; he was constantly counting, keeping track of time. Roma, what's up? What song is it? The 55th? Second playlist? He knew absolutely everything.
He would say, It’s 12 o'clock now. And that was it, a staff member, we called them bruises, would walk past our cell. Someone would shout to him, What time is it? 12.
Sometimes they even just asked us. Listen, Khokhol, what time is it now? 12:10. He looks at his watch. 12:10? Well done.
So, you learned to tell time?
Of course. To that extent.
So they didn't even play regular Russian broadcast TV or radio for you?
No, absolutely not. We knew absolutely nothing. We had Russian history there, the history of World War II, chronology. Three lectures, something about Peter the Great.
Every day, the same thing. Absolutely.
We went to watch television. We arrived, we watched.
They asked who used to do sports. And I had always promoted a healthy lifestyle. I said, I used to do sports.
Our conversation ended. Then they took us back to the cell. And he asked for my surname again and closed the door.
And when the door opened a second time, he called out my surname. To be honest, I think he just decided to check if I was a bullshitter. Because there was a pull-up bar in the exercise yard.
I thought he just wanted to take me out now and see how many pull-ups I could do. I went out, and as I was leaving, he said, are you dressed under your uniform? I said, no. We used to undress because absolutely everyone had a fungal infection.
No one treated it; they didn't provide us with medical assistance. And I said, no, I need to get dressed. He said, alright, get dressed.
I got dressed, went out, they led me down the corridor, took me into that room where my viewing had been, the TV was on, a staff member in a blue uniform spoke with me. He said, you will say that you have no complaints against the RF, that you were fed well, provided with medical assistance, and that you are okay. I said what they wanted to hear.
Did you have to say that on video?
Yes, I had to say that on video. They took a photo, a video of my speech, and that was it. They took me back to the cell, and I realized I was going home.
Because they had already taken some of the guys that way. And then there were letters, and they told us that the guys had passed on information about you, that you were alive, that you had been in the cell with them, everything, and I realized I was going home. Well, to be honest, I didn't believe it until the last moment, until they took me into some room, let me change clothes, and asked me if I would miss it.
Did this all happen during a single day?
Yes.
And how did they transport you further?
First, they transported me in that prisoner van, then they brought me right to the runway. There, they loaded me onto a plane.
At some point, you and your brother were separated. How did you end up together?
We ended up...
You said you were released at the same time.
Yes, yes.
Basically, after we were brought there, we boarded a plane. And we are flying in the plane. Then the plane starts to land, and I realize, thank God.
There was a feeling that home was already somewhere nearby. We land. And they begin, there were rows there, two rows.
On one side of the plane and the other. And there was a bench in the middle, and they sat on one side and the other. And these special forces began to walk around, and they are removing these bags from our heads and cutting the tape off our hands.
I take it off, lift my head, and see my brother-in-arms, Vlad Chuhuienko. He’s my friend. I look at him, I look at Vladik.
Well, and we show, you know, such emotions. Like, bro, it’s you, I can hardly believe it. Because he is the twin brother of my best friend, Stas.
He is in captivity right now. And I see him, and I'm so happy, Vladyushka. And someone from the side yells, saying, Stas, Stas.
I say, what Stas? I say, this is Vladik. And they are twins, and some people just couldn't tell them apart. But they are just my close friends, and they are different to me.
I say, this is Vlad, not Stas. And I look, and there's some guy vomiting next to him. I think, damn, buddy, they’re going to make you clean it up now.
Hang in there, you'll get out soon and vomit on the runway.
And then I see him. Safe and sound. I was just in such shock.
It’s impossible to describe in words. I saw him, we hugged, we kissed. I was... well, my own brother, a kindred soul I’d always been with.
It was very... I was very worried about him, that he would be... that they might maim him or something. I was very... I was very worried about that. When I saw him, that he was alive, more or less healthy, with his limbs intact.
I was very glad to see him.
Were you taken by plane somewhere to the territory of Belarus?
And there we went to our buses, and they went to theirs. Russian servicemen.
How long were you in the bags on your heads while you were flying?
Yes, they put a bag on me after I got out of the prisoner van.
Like, when I was unloaded after Mordovia. We were driven, given bags. Told to put on the bags, to get out of the vehicle in bags.
We were led out, taken into a hangar. Well, and you could hear the planes making noise.
What was the first impression? You told us about your brother, which is a strong impression, but what about when you actually reached Ukrainian territory?
What was the most memorable, the most vivid thing there?
Well, the flag of Ukraine was probably the most memorable thing. When I saw the native colors. That was probably the most... I was very glad that my country exists. That was the most important thing, probably.
I was very glad that I was right, that our country is standing, and we exist, and will continue to exist.
We spoke with Mariana Mamonova, who was also in captivity while pregnant.
And she spoke about a fairly typical path: first, there is euphoria from seeing loved ones and so on. But after a few months, it hits you; the nightmares begin to surface, and so on. How was it in your case?
I always positioned myself as a strong person, you know, and thought it wouldn't apply to me, that I’d come back and it wouldn't affect me.
I was wrong. When I returned, I encountered those horrors, and such... Yes, she was right about everything. After you return, there is euphoria, everything is great, but the psyche relaxes, and all the negativity you absorbed in captivity starts to crawl out.
Everything starts coming back.
I won’t complain, I looked okay. More or less. I think sport saved me in captivity, because we were forced to stand constantly. We stood for 16 hours a day, we ate standing up, used the bathroom only on command, everything was on command, meaning there were no free... But I would go to the bathroom and do squats; when they hung a curtain over the bathroom, I grabbed the... what is it, Lord... there used to be a door there, the door frame at the top, there was a small ledge there, and I did pull-ups, because I really loved doing pull-ups.
About five times, maybe less, I don't remember exactly, they took me out, or rather, they took our cell out, because we were doing sports. The cell was punished because we did sports without a command, and they beat us for it. But we never stopped those activities, absolutely never.
We even had a rotation; whoever had the time, based on the songs, as I said, we had a schedule: okay, from this song to that one, I'm exercising. And the guys and I tried to maintain our bodies through sports in captivity. Even though we suffered for it, they beat us, but we didn't stop.
What could you do?
They let us do exercises in the morning, but that was only in the last year. Working out, doing push-ups—that kind of thing wasn't allowed at all. If you were doing push-ups or, God forbid, doing crunches, that was it, the door would fly open, those masks would charge in, and they would start beating you with batons and tasers, tormenting you, making you crawl, doing "grenades," whatever they wanted.
Anything that entered their sick minds was used. They are mutilated themselves during their compulsory service. That hazing of theirs, it all comes out later.
I experienced it all firsthand; that's how it was in Mordovia. And in Kashin, it was the same picture. A carbon copy.
I mean sports. When the guards weren't looking, what did you try to do?
We worked comprehensively. I, for example, did pull-ups, then immediately push-ups, and squats.
We even improvised dip bars. We had this very narrow toilet area lined with tiles. And the tiles were like in the standard Soviet Union, up to chest height.
And there was a ledge. I would climb up, stand on the tap, pull myself up, and grab these ledges on the wall. And we did dips.
In short, I tried. You had a space of one meter by one meter. That was the little square.
It’s like a cubicle. And that’s it. Whatever you can come up with.
I did handstands and push-ups. Anything. We did squats. We even did stretching. I even tried to do the splits. Where the camera was, we had blind spots.
We tried to stretch and do push-ups in those blind spots where the camera couldn't reach.
You said the horrors started surfacing later. What exactly was it in your case?
I very often dream of my brothers-in-arms who are still in captivity, of how they are constantly being beaten.
And I try somehow to save them. Something like that. I start screaming don’t beat them.
It is very... To be honest, it’s a bit personal. It’s very hard to talk about.
And it still haunts me to this day.
Let’s talk about rehabilitation. Did you realize right away that you needed it?
At first, we were received quite well in Nemyriv. But at that time, it is quite hard to realize that you need psychological support. Because you think you are healthy.
You don’t need it. It’s just all of that. But I was told right away that if you want to recover, you need to go to Lviv and you need to get into Unbroken.
Because they told me right away that the most qualified assistance for returned prisoners is there. And not only for prisoners, but also for the wounded, and for people who need help. The best specialists who can help you recover are there.
So at first, my first attempt to get here ended in failure. I couldn't make it. There was no room.
It was overcrowded. So I went to Vynnyky instead. And again, having arrived there and been treated there, I still didn't realize if I needed this help.
Because when you return, you think everything is fine, that it doesn't concern you, you’re healthy, and everything else. But slowly, slowly, the longer I lived, I realized the horrors, even just the memories of it. I just sit down to eat today, I got up in the morning, came to eat, was drinking coffee and remembering my brothers-in-arms who, at the same time I was doing that, were also eating at seven o'clock. And I remember that I used to eat seven spoonfuls of porridge in the morning; I counted them.
And like, I’m here eating a piece of meat, buckwheat, washing it down with delicious coffee with milk, well, it’s very hard to realize that those people are still there.
You said that 250 people were taken prisoner along with you. Can you say how many remain?
To be honest, no. But the lion's share is still in captivity.
Is that classified information?
Yes.
When you finally got here for rehabilitation, what did it start with?
Well, first of all, well, right away, according to the standard, you take tests, again, to realize that you need help is a bit difficult. Personally, well, I am talking specifically about myself, to admit to yourself that you need help, because you think you are stronger, you don't need anything, you are healthy.
But in the process, when I started going to all these art therapies, to therapy with psychologists, when you start communicating and realizing that you have problems and these people can help you, when I realized that and I didn't realize it right away. First, you have to give it a little time to understand that you need help. To try.
To communicate, to go. And now, at this moment, even while I'm on leave, I work with psychologists who help me. I just understand now, at this moment, I understand what qualified assistance is, which actually helps you return to this way of life that is buzzing all around you.
Oleh Berezyuk, who heads the Mental Health Center, told us that the military, as a rule, those who are in rehabilitation, do not open up right away. At first, they might not engage at all, then they talk more, more, and more about the experience that happened to them. How was it in your case?
Everything is just as he says.
Everything is exactly like that. Well, with Oleh Romanovych, I have quite a cool relationship now, as with a specialist, in the sense that I really realized that a psychologist can understand, can help, and point me toward the right path. And I am working with him now and, to be honest, I am very impressed by how precisely a person can work, how he can point out some of my problems and the options for solving my problem. He is a very cool specialist; I wouldn't be afraid to say that he is the smartest person I have met.
Please clarify your status now. Are you considered discharged or is your treatment still ongoing?
I am currently discharged, on medical leave.
So you will still be returning?
Yes, yes.
Well, I really want to return; I want to work with Oleh Romanovych some more. I haven't stopped working with him now; he even helps me while I'm on leave. As I said, I'm very impressed that a person works even with those who are seemingly already discharged, but they help me anyway.
I can call and say I want to meet and talk. No one has ever refused to help me. I am very impressed by this, by the kind of work they do.
Please describe your treatment a bit more. You said there were tests at first, that's the physical side. What else happened during this time?
There is a lot of activity in terms of concerts being offered.
This is very cool for our socialization, so that we return faster to all that real life buzzing around us. Working with different psychologists—you aren't forced to work with someone you don't like, for example. You can change; you can ask for someone else.
The approach is very professional and serious. Here, in my opinion, people have truly come to help people. For me, this is very important.
Plus, I like working with people who enjoy their work. You like going to a barber, for example, who cuts hair very well and also gets pleasure from their job. And here, it’s the same picture.
You come and see that people like their work. And you're drawn to them, you reach out, you open up, and solve your problems.
How do you evaluate your condition? How has it changed during rehabilitation, and at what stage are you now?
I think my condition is stable now.
But my dreams trouble me a lot. We are working with them now. At this moment, I feel that if you compare me before and after arriving here, now I am much more composed, not so lost or confused about what is happening here, as the specialists, the psychologists, help me with this.
Therefore, I am very satisfied with the result.
Did psychotherapists also work with your wife in parallel?
No, she doesn't work with psychotherapists. She is currently studying to be a psychologist herself.
I know that they work with relatives here too.
Yes, of course, they offer help too. And I’ve already talked to my wife; I say, maybe you want to go and talk, maybe you’d be interested. So far, she is, how to put it, cautious about it.
And right now, she simply cannot go physically. My wife is currently expecting, so it's a bit difficult for her right now.
Can you say that the fact that specialists took you on contributed to your relationship with your wife?
Yes, I became much less aggressive.
My wife noticed this, and we’ve already had a conversation. She said that some, you know, when you return, some small problems occur, but you blow them up into some incomprehensible issue. And this was specifically after I returned from Nemyriv; I had such moments.
Because before, I could make a problem out of nothing. Now, somehow, everything has leveled out.
For me, it’s personal. I want to fight for my friends who are still in captivity, for my brothers-in-arms I served with. I see that this needs to be done, because we must remind people about our heroes who are currently in captivity, and return them home as soon as possible, because there is nothing but torture and abuse there. We need to return those guys who sacrificed their lives for us.
On February 5, another exchange took place. As far as I can see, there were servicemen specifically from the 501st battalion who were returned.
My friends returned; my best friend Ruslan Kurtmallaiev returned. I, by the way, am here with a flag featuring his image. I go to every rally with it and fight for him.
I am very glad that he has returned now. We are communicating with him now, and as soon as he has time, when he is able to see people after quarantine, I will definitely go to him; we will meet.
It seems someone else was returned?
Yes, Bordiukh, Dmytro. From my battalion, if I’m not mistaken, 5 people returned, specifically from the 501st battalion. I am very glad for these guys.
If you can share, what are your plans for the future? Starting from where to live, whether to continue service, and so on?
Well, first of all, I’m trying to focus on my problems now, to resolve them, to stabilize myself psychologically and physically. Of course, I would like to return to the guys, to help.
I don’t want to end my service, of course. But right now, at this moment, I cannot make a personal decision. My wife isn’t ready to talk about further service yet.
So I’m trying to find myself. I think that in this place where I am being treated, they will help me.
